gimme 5 recycling program

Mail In

More and more people are taking part in our Gimme 5 program, which we developed to support the recycling of #5 (polypropylene) plastics.

If you pay attention to municipal recycling systems’ fine print, you’re aware that #5 plastics aren’t as widely collected as #1 and #2 plastics. This program is our way of addressing that issue. As well, currently #5 plastic recycling rates are much lower than those for #1 and #2 plastics.

Gimme 5 is the Preserve recycling program that gives people easy ways to rescue their #5 plastics from a landfill life sentence. There are two ways to participate:

Gimme 5: By Mail

If you don’t live near one of our Gimme 5 retail locations, you can participate by mail. Before doing so, please check on the availability of #5 municipal recycling services in your area. Also note that some products, such as the Preserve toothbrush and very small items such as loose plastic caps cannot be recycled curbside. To participate, just box up your clean #5 products and packages and send them to us—we’ll take it from there. Just be sure to include your name and email address in the spot provided on the shipping label.

To make this mail-in recycling program as environmentally effective as possible, we encourage you to keep the footprint small: if possible, reuse a box and pack it densely. (We’d also like to ask you to ship your package by ground, but we realize that it’s not always possible to choose how your package travels.)

Unfortunately, we can’t reimburse #5 recyclers for their postage costs, as the reprocessing costs alone are too significant. The good news is that we’re continuously adding new retail locations, so there will be more and more places where you can drop your #5 plastics off for free.

Please note that this is not the address of our Headquarters, so please don’t send correspondence here! If you have any questions about the Preserve Gimme 5 program, or would like to send us a large shipment (say, more than 30 pounds) of #5 plastic, please contact us and select "Gimme 5."

Gimme 5: In Person

Preserve has partnered with local and national grocers to place our Gimme 5 bins on-site at food co-ops and Whole Foods Market locations across the country. To see if there’s a Gimme 5 bin near you, check out our list.